Here's What You Need To Know About New Timberwolves Guard Malik Beasley

On Thursday, the Timberwolves announced that they had acquired Malik Beasley in a four-team trade with the Denver Nuggets. Yes, there were other players involved and yes, there were other teams involved. But this is Beasley's space. Respect that, please. 

If you’ve watched the Nuggets over the last few years, you already know that Beasley is an up-and-coming player in this league who deserved a bigger opportunity on Denver’s crowded roster. 

In Minnesota, Beasley should get that opportunity. What role he’ll play has yet to be determined, but it’s almost certain he’ll play more than the 18.2 minutes per game he was playing with the Nuggets earlier this season.

Here are five things to know about the 2016 first-round pick:

The Timberwolves are shooting 39.5 3-pointers per game this season, a mark that ranks third in the NBA. It’s no secret that shooting threes will be part of the team’s identity moving forward.

And guess what Beasley can do?

That’s right! He can shoot threes!

In his four-year career, Beasley has shot 38.2 percent on 3.3 attempts per game. Last season, he drilled 40.2 percent of his shots from deep on 5.0 attempts per game. 

Almost all of Beasley’s 3-point attempts come from catch-and-shoot opportunities — 96.6 percent this season to be exact. 

This is no disrespect at all to some of the outgoing players, but Beasley seems to fit the identity of this team a bit more — similar to Allen Crabbe, who was also acquired this season.

When Andrew Wiggins is driving and kicking, or Karl-Anthony Towns is double-teamed inside and needs to pass out, you feel better about them passing to Beasley or Crabbe rather than Treveon Graham or Jeff Teague.

If you’re an NBA player, more times than not, you’re probably the celebrity in your family. You’re the person who everyone takes a photo with to post on Instagram and makes sure they mention in every conversation that you’re their brother or cousin or uncle or third cousin twice removed or old neighbor from before you were born.

That might not be true with Beasley.

Beasley’s grandpa, John Beasley, has starred in films such as "Rudy", "Little Big League", "Walking Tall" and "The Purge".  He’s also been in a handful of TV shows throughout his career.

John is next scheduled to be in "Stoker Hills" which is currently in post-production. It’s a horror movie, so I’m gonna sit this one out but you should support the new member of the Timberwolves family and let me know how it is. 

The more Beasley plays, the better he is.

Well, yeah dummy. Of course he’s going to score more and rebound more and assist more when he plays more minutes!

That’s not what I mean — although all of those things are true because of course they are.

Here’s a look at Beasley’s efficiency during his career correlating to how many minutes he plays:

These numbers are so good that if I were you, I would be suspicious that I made them up just to prove my point in this piece. While I’m not above that at all, I promise you those numbers are real.

This goes back to the point from before. Beasley is going to get more of an opportunity to shine in Minnesota, and the numbers tell us that he will shine indeed. 

It’s not a huge surprise that when a player plays more, he feels more comfortable. But those numbers from above are pretty wild if you ask me. 

We’re reminded, especially during the trade deadline, that the NBA is a business. 

Beasley spent the last three-plus years in Denver and surely made plenty of lifelong friends along the way.

Moving to a new team during the middle of the season is difficult not only professionally, but personally. Imagine if someone just came to your office right now and told you that you have to move to South Carolina tomorrow. That would be weird. But this is exactly what happens in professional sports.

It will help Beasley that he’s moving with a friend. Juan Hernangomez, who you can get to know here, was drafted four spots ahead of Beasley in the 2016 draft — also by the Nuggets. These two have grown up in the league and developed together. That’s a kind of bond that is significant. 

Add another thing to the list that these two will go through together.

In the NBA, it’s all about windows. Timelines have to match to make a serious run in the playoffs for multiple years.

There are different ways to construct rosters, certainly, but it seems like Gersson Rosas is hoping that his young core will grow and develop together.

Just look at the ages of some of the key players already on the roster, and of those acquired:

Beasley: 23Hernangomez: 24Jarrett Culver: 20Josh Okogie: 21Andrew Wiggins: 24Karl-Anthony Towns: 24Jake Layman: 25

There seems to be a trend here. Of course, Towns, Wiggins and Okogie were already on the roster. But guys like Layman, Culver, Hernangomez and Beasley are now in under Gersson Rosas' leadership, while the team has parted ways with Teague (31), Graham (26), Robert Covington (29) and Shabazz Napier (28).

Timberwolves fans will get their first chance to see Beasley on Saturday against the Clippers. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. CT.